Dolly Parton once said, "Don't get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life."
So what do Dolly Parton and I have in common? She probably has a boat, and I pretend to have one :)
For over 22 years, I've been focused on levelling up, building a career, and climbing the ladder. Along the way, I've met countless amazing people. I realised that finding my people became easier when I stopped filtering myself. It's not quite a zero-f’s strategy, but more about growing into who I am without worrying too much about what anyone around me thinks. Try to be good, do good, and the likelihood of good increases - or at least, that's what I believe.
We can sometimes fall into being so busy that we lose touch with people. New connections can be hard to make because something else might have to give way to make space. But sometimes, a new connection, reconnect with an old, an event, or moment can be a catalyst - a subtle nudge to do something new or explore something we lack exposure to in our current environment. Throughout my career, I've spent many stints at some of the largest brands in the world, staying busy with a tunnel-like vision to deliver outcomes through the most interesting projects. Stepping back and drawing from experiences can only be effective if you have experiences to draw from.
In 2023, following yet another redundancy, I was able to ‘step back’ myself and start attending events again. Remind myself of the world around me. I wanted to meet more people, learn new things, research AI, and build meaningful breaks into work. Not being busy helped me reflect more and allowed room for creativity to happen. Most importantly, it reconnected me with people - my people. Being part of the #CX community means there are lots of options to find somewhere to go pretty much every other month. I just started attending them, one after the other...
Two of the biggest things I’ve done recently came from this ‘enforced’ step back. The first, I launched my own consultancy, thecxway - customer service minus the waffle, and second, I joined SentiSum after reconnecting with Sharad. Call and contact centre land can sometimes feel slightly thankless, and the opportunity to drive real change through the power of 'connecting the dots' and 'storytelling' was something I couldn’t turn down. I've been able to power up others like me and this new found purpose within CX just hits differently. I'm a little obsessed and perhaps slightly relentlessly going after it - let's rid the world of bad customer experiences once and for all :)
This leads me back to the boat and Dolly… I’m excited to host my very first event! A summer BBQ boat party with grilled food, cold drinks, and great conversations. For reasons beyond my control, I couldn’t get Dolly to attend…
Have you ever had a moment that made you step back? How did it change things for you? What are you obsessing over right now?
Thank you for reading,
Sham
#ConnectTheDots #BoatParty #FullCirleMoment
